(Reuters) -Canada on Tuesday released its most detailed plan yet of how it expects to meet its international climate commitments by 2030 and set an interim goal of cutting planet warming carbon emissions 20% below 2005 levels by 2026.
The Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP), introduced by federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault, a former Greenpeace activist, sets targets for each sector of the Canadian economy.
“This is our ambitious and achievable roadmap to reach our emissions reduction targets under the Paris Agreement,” Guilbeault said in the plan document, referring to the 2015 international treaty on climate change.
Canada is the world’s fourth largest oil producer and 10th largest carbon emitter. Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has pledged to cut emissions 40-45% below 2005 levels by 2030.
The 2026 interim goal, which is not an official target like the 2030 objective, will be a major measure of whether Canada is on track to meet that commitment.
The plan is the first to be introduced under the requirements of Canada’s Net-Zero Accountability Act, which the government adopted last summer in a bid to produce more binding climate policies after years of Canada missing emissions goals.
Climate campaigners said to be effective the ERP must be accountable and transparent, target all sectors and end the expansion of the oil and gas industry, Canada’s highest emitting sector, and promote a “just transition” that benefits all workers.
Guilbeault told Reuters earlier this month that a plan to cap and then cut emissions from the oil and gas sector will not be ready until late this year or early 2023, raising questions over the effectiveness of the ERP.
(Reporting by Nia Williams in Calgary, Ismail Shakil in Bengaluru and additional reporting by Caitlin Webber in Washington; editing by Grant McCool)
